This chapter focuses on Stephen Jay Gould's attack on George Gaylord Simpson, who was considered in the 1960s as paleontology's principal innovator in macroevolutionary theory. It highlights Gould's ...
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This chapter focuses on Stephen Jay Gould's attack on George Gaylord Simpson, who was considered in the 1960s as paleontology's principal innovator in macroevolutionary theory. It highlights Gould's efforts to deny Simpson any relevance to contemporary developments and suggests that this “ritual patricide Radical” was central to Gould's efforts at establishing a new disciplinary identity for his favored brand of macroevolutionary paleobiology. This chapter also examines the rhetorical devices used in that campaign.Less

Joe Cain

Published in print: 2009-06-15

This chapter focuses on Stephen Jay Gould's attack on George Gaylord Simpson, who was considered in the 1960s as paleontology's principal innovator in macroevolutionary theory. It highlights Gould's efforts to deny Simpson any relevance to contemporary developments and suggests that this “ritual patricide Radical” was central to Gould's efforts at establishing a new disciplinary identity for his favored brand of macroevolutionary paleobiology. This chapter also examines the rhetorical devices used in that campaign.

Fitness and adaptive landscapes have theoretical limitations, but they have played a valuable role in integrating population genetics and macroevolution. Sewall Wright introduced fitness landscapes ...
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Fitness and adaptive landscapes have theoretical limitations, but they have played a valuable role in integrating population genetics and macroevolution. Sewall Wright introduced fitness landscapes in 1931 to describe the relationship between genotypes and fitness, and George G. Simpson modified and popularized the concept of landscapes in evolutionary biology in 1944 as adaptive landscapes to illustrate the evolutionary response of fossil lineages to natural selection. Patterns of sediment and fossil accumulation impose practical limitations on the use of adaptive landscapes to analyze fossil data. Phenotypic evolution can occur too rapidly to resolve in the stratigraphic record, hindering observation of movement of lineages upward on an adaptive peak. Use of the null hypothesis of a random phenotypic walk through time (i.e., genetic drift) to test for adaptation in the trajectory of change in fossil lineages has consistently led to rejection of adaptation, but recent methods, including a maximum likelihood procedure for individual lineages and simultaneous analysis of multiple species and traits, indicate that fossil lineages have ascended adaptive peaks and remained at their summits as they shift position through time. Recognition of the limits to temporal resolution in fossil lineages provide guidance for the selection of fossil lineages to study, and development of new statistical tools have enhanced the value of adaptive landscapes to analyze the fossil record.Less

Adaptive Landscapes, Evolution, and the Fossil Record

Michael A. Bell

Published in print: 2013-05-17

Fitness and adaptive landscapes have theoretical limitations, but they have played a valuable role in integrating population genetics and macroevolution. Sewall Wright introduced fitness landscapes in 1931 to describe the relationship between genotypes and fitness, and George G. Simpson modified and popularized the concept of landscapes in evolutionary biology in 1944 as adaptive landscapes to illustrate the evolutionary response of fossil lineages to natural selection. Patterns of sediment and fossil accumulation impose practical limitations on the use of adaptive landscapes to analyze fossil data. Phenotypic evolution can occur too rapidly to resolve in the stratigraphic record, hindering observation of movement of lineages upward on an adaptive peak. Use of the null hypothesis of a random phenotypic walk through time (i.e., genetic drift) to test for adaptation in the trajectory of change in fossil lineages has consistently led to rejection of adaptation, but recent methods, including a maximum likelihood procedure for individual lineages and simultaneous analysis of multiple species and traits, indicate that fossil lineages have ascended adaptive peaks and remained at their summits as they shift position through time. Recognition of the limits to temporal resolution in fossil lineages provide guidance for the selection of fossil lineages to study, and development of new statistical tools have enhanced the value of adaptive landscapes to analyze the fossil record.

This chapter provides an historical overview of paleobiology, from the origin of the term itself through the emergence of a distinct set of paleobiological methods and questions in the 1950s and ...
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This chapter provides an historical overview of paleobiology, from the origin of the term itself through the emergence of a distinct set of paleobiological methods and questions in the 1950s and 1960s. It suggests that while paleobiology experienced an accelerated period of activity during the 1970s and 1980s, its roots were firmly established by the work of the previous generation of paleontologists, particularly by George Gaylord Simpson and Norman Newell. This chapter also mentions that it was in the 1980s that paleobiology was established as a mainstay in many university and museum departments.Less

The Emergence of Paleobiology

David Sepkoski

Published in print: 2009-06-15

This chapter provides an historical overview of paleobiology, from the origin of the term itself through the emergence of a distinct set of paleobiological methods and questions in the 1950s and 1960s. It suggests that while paleobiology experienced an accelerated period of activity during the 1970s and 1980s, its roots were firmly established by the work of the previous generation of paleontologists, particularly by George Gaylord Simpson and Norman Newell. This chapter also mentions that it was in the 1980s that paleobiology was established as a mainstay in many university and museum departments.

This book follows the development of evolutionary science over the past two hundred years. It highlights the fact that life endures even though all organisms and species are transitory or ephemeral. ...
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This book follows the development of evolutionary science over the past two hundred years. It highlights the fact that life endures even though all organisms and species are transitory or ephemeral. It goes on to explain that the extinction and evolution of species—interconnected in the web of life as “eternal ephemera”—are key concerns of evolutionary biology. The book begins in France with the naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, who in 1801 first framed the overarching question about the emergence of new species. It moves on to the Italian geologist Giambattista Brocchi who brought in ideas from geology and paleontology to expand the question. It details how, in 1825, at the University of Edinburgh, Robert Grant and Robert Jameson introduced the astounding ideas formulated by Lamarck and Brocchi to a young medical student named Charles Darwin and follows Darwin as he sets out on his voyage on the Beagle in 1831. The book revisits Darwin's early insights into evolution in South America and his later synthesis of his knowledge into the theory of the origin of species. It then considers the ideas of more recent evolutionary thinkers, such as George Gaylord Simpson, Ernst Mayr and Theodosius Dobzhansky, as well as Niles Eldredge and Steven Jay Gould, who developed the concept of punctuated equilibria. The book provides many insights into evolutionary biology, and celebrates the organic, vital relationship between scientific thinking and its subjects.Less

Eternal Ephemera : Adaptation and the Origin of Species from the Nineteenth Century Through Punctuated Equilibria and Beyond

Niles Eldredge

Published in print: 2015-03-03

This book follows the development of evolutionary science over the past two hundred years. It highlights the fact that life endures even though all organisms and species are transitory or ephemeral. It goes on to explain that the extinction and evolution of species—interconnected in the web of life as “eternal ephemera”—are key concerns of evolutionary biology. The book begins in France with the naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, who in 1801 first framed the overarching question about the emergence of new species. It moves on to the Italian geologist Giambattista Brocchi who brought in ideas from geology and paleontology to expand the question. It details how, in 1825, at the University of Edinburgh, Robert Grant and Robert Jameson introduced the astounding ideas formulated by Lamarck and Brocchi to a young medical student named Charles Darwin and follows Darwin as he sets out on his voyage on the Beagle in 1831. The book revisits Darwin's early insights into evolution in South America and his later synthesis of his knowledge into the theory of the origin of species. It then considers the ideas of more recent evolutionary thinkers, such as George Gaylord Simpson, Ernst Mayr and Theodosius Dobzhansky, as well as Niles Eldredge and Steven Jay Gould, who developed the concept of punctuated equilibria. The book provides many insights into evolutionary biology, and celebrates the organic, vital relationship between scientific thinking and its subjects.

Chapter 1 begins by stressing the severity of climate change (CC) and showing how, contrary to popular belief, atomic energy is not a viable solution to ...
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Chapter 1 begins by stressing the severity of climate change (CC) and showing how, contrary to popular belief, atomic energy is not a viable solution to CC. Many scientists and most market proponents agree that renewable energy and energy efficiencies are better options. The chapter also shows that government subsidies for oil and nuclear power are the result of flawed science, poor ethics, short-term thinking, and special-interest influence. The chapter has 7 sections, the first of which surveys four major components of the energy crisis. These are oil addiction, non-CC-related deaths from fossil-fuel pollution, nuclear-weapons proliferation, and catastrophic CC. The second section summarizes some of the powerful evidence for global CC. The third section uses historical, ahistorical, Rawlsian, and utilitarian ethical principles to show how developed nations, especially the US, are most responsible for human-caused CC. The fourth section shows why climate-change skeptics, such as “deniers” who doubt CC is real, and “delayers” who say that it should not yet be addressed, have no valid objections. Instead, they all err scientifically and ethically. The fifth section illustrates that all modern scientific methods—and scientific consensus since at least 1995—confirm the reality of global CC. Essentially all expert-scientific analyses published in refereed, scientific-professional journals confirm the reality of global CC. The sixth section of the chapter shows how fossil-fuel special interests have contributed to the continued CC debate largely by paying non-experts to deny or challenge CC. The seventh section of the chapter provides an outline of each chapter in the book, noting that this book makes use of both scientific and ethical analyses to show why nuclear proponents’ arguments err, why CC deniers are wrong, and how scientific-methodological understanding can advance sound energy policy—including conservation, renewable energy, and energy efficiencies.Less

Why Climate-Change Skeptics Are Wrong

Kristin Shrader-Frechette

Published in print: 2011-12-12

Chapter 1 begins by stressing the severity of climate change (CC) and showing how, contrary to popular belief, atomic energy is not a viable solution to CC. Many scientists and most market proponents agree that renewable energy and energy efficiencies are better options. The chapter also shows that government subsidies for oil and nuclear power are the result of flawed science, poor ethics, short-term thinking, and special-interest influence. The chapter has 7 sections, the first of which surveys four major components of the energy crisis. These are oil addiction, non-CC-related deaths from fossil-fuel pollution, nuclear-weapons proliferation, and catastrophic CC. The second section summarizes some of the powerful evidence for global CC. The third section uses historical, ahistorical, Rawlsian, and utilitarian ethical principles to show how developed nations, especially the US, are most responsible for human-caused CC. The fourth section shows why climate-change skeptics, such as “deniers” who doubt CC is real, and “delayers” who say that it should not yet be addressed, have no valid objections. Instead, they all err scientifically and ethically. The fifth section illustrates that all modern scientific methods—and scientific consensus since at least 1995—confirm the reality of global CC. Essentially all expert-scientific analyses published in refereed, scientific-professional journals confirm the reality of global CC. The sixth section of the chapter shows how fossil-fuel special interests have contributed to the continued CC debate largely by paying non-experts to deny or challenge CC. The seventh section of the chapter provides an outline of each chapter in the book, noting that this book makes use of both scientific and ethical analyses to show why nuclear proponents’ arguments err, why CC deniers are wrong, and how scientific-methodological understanding can advance sound energy policy—including conservation, renewable energy, and energy efficiencies.

Paleontology has long had a troubled relationship with evolutionary biology. Suffering from a reputation as a second-tier science and conjuring images of fossil collectors and amateurs who dig up ...
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Paleontology has long had a troubled relationship with evolutionary biology. Suffering from a reputation as a second-tier science and conjuring images of fossil collectors and amateurs who dig up bones, it was marginalized even by Darwin himself, who worried that incompleteness in the fossil record would be used against his theory of evolution. But with the establishment of the modern synthesis in the 1940s and the pioneering work of George Gaylord Simpson, Ernst Mayr, and Theodosius Dobzhansky, as well as the subsequent efforts of Stephen Jay Gould, David Raup, and James Valentine, paleontology became embedded in biology and emerged as paleobiology, a first-rate discipline central to evolutionary studies. This incredible ascendance of this once-maligned science to the vanguard of a field is chronicled in this book. Chapters here aim to capture the excitement of the seismic changes in the discipline.Less

The Paleobiological Revolution : Essays on the Growth of Modern Paleontology

Published in print: 2009-06-15

Paleontology has long had a troubled relationship with evolutionary biology. Suffering from a reputation as a second-tier science and conjuring images of fossil collectors and amateurs who dig up bones, it was marginalized even by Darwin himself, who worried that incompleteness in the fossil record would be used against his theory of evolution. But with the establishment of the modern synthesis in the 1940s and the pioneering work of George Gaylord Simpson, Ernst Mayr, and Theodosius Dobzhansky, as well as the subsequent efforts of Stephen Jay Gould, David Raup, and James Valentine, paleontology became embedded in biology and emerged as paleobiology, a first-rate discipline central to evolutionary studies. This incredible ascendance of this once-maligned science to the vanguard of a field is chronicled in this book. Chapters here aim to capture the excitement of the seismic changes in the discipline.

In the late 1940s, the discipline of paleontology took major steps towards becoming more fully integrated into the community of evolutionary biology. Key to this process was the development of ...
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In the late 1940s, the discipline of paleontology took major steps towards becoming more fully integrated into the community of evolutionary biology. Key to this process was the development of quantitative ways of documenting and analyzing morphological variation in fossils, which allowed paleontologists to integrate paleontology into the Modern Evolutionary Synthesis. Paleontologists, however, wrestled with accommodating fossil data to the populational understanding of species promoted by geneticists in the Synthesis. In so doing, these paleontologists posed a solution to the problem of incorporating “population thinking” into paleontology; introduced greater analytical and quantitative rigor into paleontology; and introduced new theoretical possibilities for interpreting the evolutionary significance of the fossil record, which greatly contributed to the further growth of evolutionary paleobiology.Less

The “Species Concept” and the Beginnings of Paleobiology

David Sepkoski

Published in print: 2016-10-05

In the late 1940s, the discipline of paleontology took major steps towards becoming more fully integrated into the community of evolutionary biology. Key to this process was the development of quantitative ways of documenting and analyzing morphological variation in fossils, which allowed paleontologists to integrate paleontology into the Modern Evolutionary Synthesis. Paleontologists, however, wrestled with accommodating fossil data to the populational understanding of species promoted by geneticists in the Synthesis. In so doing, these paleontologists posed a solution to the problem of incorporating “population thinking” into paleontology; introduced greater analytical and quantitative rigor into paleontology; and introduced new theoretical possibilities for interpreting the evolutionary significance of the fossil record, which greatly contributed to the further growth of evolutionary paleobiology.

The final chapter of Part II shows how in the afterwar years, Huxley’s humanism gained through international institutionalization and new followers across disciplinary and national boundaries. ...
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The final chapter of Part II shows how in the afterwar years, Huxley’s humanism gained through international institutionalization and new followers across disciplinary and national boundaries. However, while Huxley’s plans for the world in many respects matched with Cold War western liberal ideals, from the 1960s, there were also contrary trends in society as well as science. Decolonialisation, and minority and civil rights movements had demands that differed from Huxley’s and were not in agreement with his notion of one history and future for all. Postmodernism was suspicious of his synthesis and of the claim that biology was the means to all ends. Last but not least, the new molecular biology diverged from Huxley’s belief in holistic approaches; there was a novel, molecular view of life that included humans. And it was the molecular approaches that increasingly gained in authority within and without science.Less

The Ascent of Man Defended

Marianne Sommer

Published in print: 2016-05-27

The final chapter of Part II shows how in the afterwar years, Huxley’s humanism gained through international institutionalization and new followers across disciplinary and national boundaries. However, while Huxley’s plans for the world in many respects matched with Cold War western liberal ideals, from the 1960s, there were also contrary trends in society as well as science. Decolonialisation, and minority and civil rights movements had demands that differed from Huxley’s and were not in agreement with his notion of one history and future for all. Postmodernism was suspicious of his synthesis and of the claim that biology was the means to all ends. Last but not least, the new molecular biology diverged from Huxley’s belief in holistic approaches; there was a novel, molecular view of life that included humans. And it was the molecular approaches that increasingly gained in authority within and without science.

There is a growing consensus around the lineage species concept, and paleontologists can provide the temporal perspective that this view of species requires. The “species problem” involves more than ...
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There is a growing consensus around the lineage species concept, and paleontologists can provide the temporal perspective that this view of species requires. The “species problem” involves more than just debating operational species concepts. It also involves making the case that species correspond to real evolutionary entities and visualizing what those entities could be– the ontology of species. These issues are closely connected to practical approaches for identifying taxa in fossil samples. Despite all the debate, there is a general concept of species applicable to all kinds of organisms. Paleontologists have a central role in this discussion, because when the crucial element of time is added to the discussion, the nature of species-as-lineages becomes much clearer.Less

The Species Problem: Concepts, Conflicts, and Patterns Preserved in the Fossil Record

William Miller

Published in print: 2016-10-05

There is a growing consensus around the lineage species concept, and paleontologists can provide the temporal perspective that this view of species requires. The “species problem” involves more than just debating operational species concepts. It also involves making the case that species correspond to real evolutionary entities and visualizing what those entities could be– the ontology of species. These issues are closely connected to practical approaches for identifying taxa in fossil samples. Despite all the debate, there is a general concept of species applicable to all kinds of organisms. Paleontologists have a central role in this discussion, because when the crucial element of time is added to the discussion, the nature of species-as-lineages becomes much clearer.

This chapter examines how Darwinism led to the development of a culture of extinction in Argentina. It discusses the opinion of paleontologist and evolutionary theorist George Gaylord Simpson that ...
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This chapter examines how Darwinism led to the development of a culture of extinction in Argentina. It discusses the opinion of paleontologist and evolutionary theorist George Gaylord Simpson that though there are already descriptions of evolution without extinction or extinction without evolution before Charles Darwin, it was only after Darwin that we can see concepts of evolution and extinction working together. This chapter explains the logic of the Darwinian theory and argues that in a way Darwin “naturalized” the concept of extinction.Less

The Culture of Extinction

Published in print: 2010-12-01

This chapter examines how Darwinism led to the development of a culture of extinction in Argentina. It discusses the opinion of paleontologist and evolutionary theorist George Gaylord Simpson that though there are already descriptions of evolution without extinction or extinction without evolution before Charles Darwin, it was only after Darwin that we can see concepts of evolution and extinction working together. This chapter explains the logic of the Darwinian theory and argues that in a way Darwin “naturalized” the concept of extinction.